Tiger News

Welcome back for the 2026-2027 school year!

We hope that everyone was able to find some time to relax and enjoy their summer, despite the rain and mosquitos!

As we begin the year, we hope that everyone entered the school year with a feeling of invigoration. Our school staff has been working diligently to prepare, with many taking on new challenges this year. We are happy to welcome back most of our staff from last year, and to welcome our new Assistant Principal, Ms. Denise Read. We all look forward to working with you this year.

We have a very busy month of September with lots of activities including the start up of our athletics committee. One very exciting event we have going on is the Indigo Love of Reading Fundraiser. We are partnered with an Indigo store in Calgary who is actively working on getting us donations for our school library. We have set a goal of raising $1,000 dollars from our school portion of the fundraiser, and the store has set a goal of $10,000! We encourage all families to let their relatives know, so hopefully we can surpass our goal! See below for more details!

Please reach out to the school if you have any questions, or if there is anything we can do to support you and your child at this time. We have lots of great things planned for the year, and we are excited for the new school year.

Lloyd MacKenzie - Principal

Hello All!

Last year I was fortunate to work a few days a week at Hay Lakes School and it quickly became one of my favourite places to be. I enjoyed working alongside a knowledgeable, dedicated group of professionals and meeting the enthusiastic, respectful students. The school staff, students, and community members were always warm and welcoming. When the opportunity arose to become Assistant Principal here, I jumped at the chance!

I look forward to meeting all of you at parent council meetings, sports events, tournaments, and other activities that bring our learning community together. I'm very excited to be part of the learning, creating, and achieving that will take place this year!

Denise Read - Assistant Principal

September 24 - Terry Fox Run

September 25 - PD Day - No School for Students

September 29 - Orange Shirt Day

September 30 - National Day for Truth and Reconciliation - SCHOOLS CLOSED

We announced in June that Hay Lakes School has been chosen to participate in this year’s Indigo Adopt a School Program! Through this amazing initiative, hosted by the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, our school has been officially paired with the CrossIron Mills Indigo store. From September 4th to October 4th, every dollar raised through our partnership will go directly toward putting new, engaging books into the hands of our students and upgrading our school library collection.

Reading opens doors, sparks imaginations, and builds critical skills for a lifetime. Having access to fresh, diverse, and high-interest books is key to fostering a genuine love for reading across all grade levels.

How You Can Support Us

Whether you are shopping in person or sharing from home, there are two easy ways to help us reach our goal:

• Donate Online: You can make a direct contribution to our school’s fundraiser page from anywhere between September 4th and October 4th. 👉 Donate directly to the Hay Lakes School Fundraiser

• In-Store at CrossIron Mills: If you are visiting the CrossIron Indigo store during the campaign, you can choose to make a donation at the register in support of Hay Lakes School.

Every contribution—big or small—makes a meaningful difference for our classrooms and library. Please consider sharing our donation link with friends, family, and community members to help spread the word!

Thank you for your continued support in helping our students grow as readers!

This past week, our creative students crafted beautiful bookmarks, which will be given as a thank-you to shoppers who donate to our school this month at the CrossIron Mills Indigo!

Our Junior and Senior High Volleyball teams are working hard this week to prepare for the beginning of their seasons. We are appreciative of all of our coaches who are supporting these teams!

Upcoming tournaments:

Sr. High

September 11 & 12 - at Augustana

Jr. High

September 18 & 19 - at STCA

September 26 - Fall Classic Home Tournament

Upcoming Races:

September 17 - Bashaw

October 1 - New Norway

October 8th - Camrose

As most of our interest has been from elementary students, we will be doing some practice runs at recess starting next week!

On Thursday, September 24th, students will be participating in the annual Terry Fox School Run. Our fundraising goal this year is $13.00 per student - that's $1 for each province and territory. Our school goal this year is $2000.

Parents and siblings are welcome to join us for the walk/run.

Orange Shirt Day is observed annually on September 30th as a day of memorial to honour residential school survivors, their families, and communities, and to recognize the lasting intergenerational impacts of Canada's residential school system. Because schools are closed on the 30th, we will be observing orange shirt day on Tuesday, the 29th by wearing orange to school.

Our first School (Parent) Council Meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 29th at 7 pm in the Library Learning Commons. We'd love to see lots of parents there, and strongly encourage new parents to attend.

Not sure about what type of commitment you can give? You can do as much or as little as you want with our School Council. While volunteering for events is greatly appreciated, even if parents are able to attend our meetings that happen once every two months, we would love to have you there with us!

As this is our first meeting of the year, we will be having our vote for our executive positions at this meeting. This year, there will be positions available to be filled as some of our executive will not be continuing on into this year.

There are three roles on the executive - Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary. If you would like to know more about those roles, please contact Mr. MacKenzie at the school.

Throughout the year, there may be opportunities for parents to volunteer during activities and extra-curriculars. For a parent to be able to do this, they must be an "Agent of the Board", which is a process to ensure that parents understand expectations for supervision, the school code of conduct, and other important responsibilities.

As part of this process, parents are required to meet with the Principal, and to provide a criminal record check from the RCMP or Police Service. This is all in following BRSD Administrative Procedure 270.

If you are interested in becoming a school volunteer, please email Mr. MacKenzie to set a time to meet with him to discuss the process.

In past years, as a school we used to send home a paper copy of the registration form to be updated for all students. This process is now done through PowerSchool Portal, and is important to update every year.

To access this information, you must use a web browser, not the PowerSchool App. All parents have access to the portal through our website (click here to find it). Once in the portal, you need to look for the "School Engage" icon on the left hand side. All parents have a username, which would follow this structure: firstname.lastname. If you've forgotten your password, you can request one from there.

You should have received an email in early August asking you to update your information. This is a very important process as it gives you the opportunity to update your contact information, emergency contacts, and many other things. It also asks you to sign forms for Acceptable Use of Technology and to indicate your FOIP preferences for your child(ren). This forms must be completed by the end of September. If they are not complete, we will be reaching out to remind parents, but we may have to limit internet access to students if these forms are not complete.

If you need assistance completing these forms, please contact the office.

Our first hot lunch of the school year is coming up on September 18th and it’s KFC! 🍗 The order cut-off date is September 13th, so please make sure to place your order before then.

Most families will need to re-register their children on www.healthyhunger.ca

When registering:

• Select Camrose as the city.

• Select Hay Lakes School from the school drop-down menu.

• Add your child(ren), and you’ll then be able to see the upcoming hot lunch dates.

You are also welcome to order multiple upcoming hot lunches at once if future dates are already listed.

Thank you, and we hope the kids enjoy their first hot lunch of the year!

Hay Lakes Youth Society

Hot dog, ice cream, and milk cards are available for students to purchase for $15.00. Ice cream cards are also available for purchase for $10.00. Any students with cards remaining from last year will still be able to use those cards until they run out.

Yearbooks have arrived! Students can purchase one for $30 at the office, and parents can purchase them online.

Get one before they are all gone!

Please take a moment to read this letter from BRSD Superintendent of Schools, Natasha Wilm.

The latest newsletter from our career counsellor, Erin Sharp, can be found here.

Below is an opportunity for high school students to learn more about post-secondary programs.

We've created an Instagram account to help keep us connected through multiple resources. Please follow us at @haylakestigers.